Carmen Braden - NACC 2020 - Spring Broke the River + The Mind is Wild

Carmen Braden performs “Spring Broke the River” and “The Mind is Wild” at her first live-stream show on the stage of the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre. This is part of a full show where Carmen is singing an hour of original tunes backed by some of the North’s best musicians, and playing grand pianos, painted keyboards, min-upright pianos, and toy bells. From the curious to the challenging to the comforting, Carmen’s songs and intriguing arrangements have been described as quirky and clever pop songs with occasional nods to jazz (à la Joni Mitchell). Joined by Andrea Bettger (violin, vocals), Pat Braden (bass, Chapman Stick), and Al Bee (drums), this will be a multi-camera capturing of an hour to remember and revisit.

Carmen Braden is a versatile, genre-jumping musician from the Canadian sub-Arctic. Winner of the 2019 Western Canadian Music Award for Classical Composer of the Year, Carmen is a composer/performer based in her hometown of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Hailed as “a talented, bold musician” (Up Here Magazine), Carmen is a life-long Northerner whose music has been described as “drop-dead gorgeous” (Ottawa Citizen). Carmen’s second studio album Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars (2019) was nominated for an East Coast Music Award for Classical Album of the Year. Her debut studio album Ravens was released in 2017 - both albums are on the Centrediscs label.

Carmen performs her quirky folk songs with jazz-inspired ensembles, often dipping seamlessly into her classical explorations. From intimate theatre stages to folkfest main stages.

Both Carmen’s songs and her contemporary classical music are tied to her northern soundscape. She draws from her environment by examining natural + human phenomena through sonic, visual, sensual and scientific ways of understanding. Her creative journeys have led her into deep study of lake ice, northern life, raven calls, bedrock… Carmen often collaborates with other mediums including dance, theatre, film, and story-telling.

FB: @carmenbraden
Insta: @blackicesounds